


Dark Side of the Moon

by Aikawa_Akihiko



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: 90's story through a 2018 lense, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dark Past, F/M, Foster Care, Jaded!Usagi, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 07:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14806634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aikawa_Akihiko/pseuds/Aikawa_Akihiko
Summary: Prompt – “What if Usagi Tuskino was not a happy, normal, well-adjusted girl when Luna presses her into the lifestyle of a Sailor Scout?”





	Dark Side of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: language, suggested abuse
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters created and owned by Naoko Takeuchi. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended. No monetary gain will be made from this story.
> 
> Note: For the full prompt, see wandaginnygreenleaf’s profile page on ff.net titled “Galaxy Lost”. some of the dialogue comes directly from the manga and/or anime.

**ACT ONE – USAGI**

 

Usagi opened her eyes and sighed, cursing softly. She could tell immediately that she was late for school, given the amount of light that peeked through the broken window blinds. 

 

She got up and scrambled for her school uniform. Having no time for a shower, as even on a day when she awoke on time the bathroom was usually occupied by one of the other kids, Usagi quickly twirled her long hair up into two messy buns high on her head, grabbed her ratty messenger bag, and left. 

 

She was the last to leave the house, the only sounds she heard on her way out was the crying of the new kid, not yet of school age, and Fujima-san roaring at her to “shut the hell up, kid!” Usagi ignored it, well used to her current guardian’s hollering and blustering. The middle-aged man and his harridan wife were always yelling at the kids in the house for one reason or another. The two were foster parents, taking in as many children as they were allowed in order to collect the stipend for their care. The couple spent as little of the money on their charges as possible, keeping the rest for themselves. They cared little for the children in their care and didn’t bother to hide it. It’s why most of them quickly learned to stay clear of the place when they could. _Perhaps_ , Usagi thought absently, _I’ll take the kid out sometime_. 

 

It was nothing that Usagi hadn’t seen before. She had been in foster care since her parents had been killed when she was six. Since then she had bounced from home to home, experiencing the gamut of different foster families from those who genuinely wanted to care for children to those of the… nastier variety. Thankfully she had never had to put up with anyone too vicious. The one time, when she had been eleven, a foster parent had taken it into her head to beat her, the miserly old woman had halted mid-swing and dropped dead of a heart attack. Usagi had, of course, been glad the beating had stopped, but watching a woman drop dead right in front of her had been fairly traumatizing in itself.

 

At sixteen years old, Usagi was the oldest in the house, one of seven kids, and nearly old enough to leave the foster system for good. She couldn’t say how she felt about it one way or another. She had no idea how she would make her way in the world once she aged out of the foster system.

 

Once out of the house, Usagi ran down the street toward the school only to almost immediately trip over something on the sidewalk.

 

“Ahh!” she exclaimed, landing roughly on her hands and knees. She hissed as she viewed her scraped up palms. A mewl and scuffling sounds from behind her distracted her, however. Looking behind her, she saw a cat. The cat, clearly healthy with a shiny black coat, was looking a little worse for wear. Her fur was ruffled and dirt covered, as the cat squirmed and twisted as it tried to scratch at her own head. 

 

“Oh! Hold on,” Usagi said, as she crawled over to the cat. Upon closer inspection, someone had stuck a bandage in her fur just above her eyes. She quickly grabbed the cat, trying to ignore the wriggling, and ripped off the bandage. Usagi didn’t have time to be surprised at that crescent-shaped bald spot underneath before the cat went wild with the unexpected pain and scratched Usagi until she finally let the cat go. 

 

She watched the cat run away for a second until the pain of the now bleeding scratches recalled her attention. Great now she would definitely be late. Not only that but without anything to wipe with, she would show up covered in blood. As if the other kids didn’t think she was weird enough already.

 

 ()_()

=(-.-)=

o(bb)

 

Usagi slumped into her desk at the back of the classroom. Despite her best efforts she had made quite the scene when she had got to class, helped quite a bit by her English teachers theatrics. As she had tried to walk past her classroom in hopes of making it to the bathroom to wash the blood off before anyone saw, the door had burst open to a clearly aggravated Haruna-sensei.

 

“Tsukino-kun!” she fumed, “What do you think you are doing?”

 

Usagi clenched her jaw and turned to the woman with a glare. The older woman’s eyes widened at the blood on her arms. The wounds had stopped bleeding but the blood had dried in ribbons down her arms. 

 

“Go wash up!” the teacher ordered as if that hadn’t been what Usagi had been trying to do in the first place.

 

Once washed up Usagi entered the classroom. There was no hope of not being noticed as the door was in the front of the classroom but Haruna-sensei seemed to be determined to humiliate Usagi.

 

“Sit down, Tsukino-kun, quickly,” she berated, as Usagi slinked to the back of the classroom to an empty desk. “We have no time to accommodate students who cannot be bothered to show up on time! If you put in as much effort into your studies as you seem to put into being late every day, you would be doing better on your exams!”

 

With that, she began handing back their tests from the previous day and told them to pass them down the rows of desks to their owners. Usagi’s paper was passed back each person taking a look at her grade. Some gasped and laughed, others shook their head as if disgusted someone could do so badly. Usagi was red-faced and furious by the time it made it back to her, the bright red 30 at the top of the page, underscored three times for maximum humiliation only enraged her further. 

 

The rest of the day, Usagi fumed. She didn’t care what the other students thought, not really. Going from foster house to foster house usually meant changing schools too, so she never really got close to anyone at school or made many friends. She was used to keeping to herself and watching student life from the sidelines. That didn’t mean she particularly liked it when they made it a point to talk about her in derogatory tones as if she weren’t there. 

 

As was usual, however, she sat by herself for lunch. It was rare that Usagi managed to stow away something for lunch, usually, such a thing was limited to times when she had managed to find someone to pay her for an odd job here or there and she had some spare money. As it was, Usagi had no lunch that day and simply sat under one of the trees in the courtyard, She rested her eyes as she leaned back on the rough bark, listening to the other students' chatter, getting glimpses into lives that were far more privileged and happy than hers.

 

“Oh Naru! Have you heard?” gossiped a girl with glossy long hair, someone Usagi had never bothered to learn the name of, enthused, “Another jewelry store was robbed right near here!”

 

“There’s been a lot of strange things going on in the news!” informed a bespectacled boy, Umino if Usagi remembered correctly

 

 “Yeah, I’ve heard!” the redheaded Naru said, looking perturbed. “My mama has been keeping an eye on the news. She’s getting worried, though!”

 

“O yeah!” exclaimed another girl, this one with a neatly trimmed bob, “Doesn’t your family run a jewelry store downtown?”

 

From there the conversation drifted off into girlish squeals, panting about their desires for jewelry and the big sale Naru’s family was having. Usagi rolled her eyes behind her closed lids. What she wouldn’t give for a new pair of sturdy shoes, and these girls wanted to waste money on jewelry?! Usagi huffed as the bell rang to call them back inside for the rest of their classes.

 

Later, when classes let out, she made her way a few blocks uptown towards Game Center Crown. The arcade was where she usually spent her afternoons. The assistant manager Motoki Furuhata had never minded when she had hung around the game center without actually playing anything, knowing she never had the money to waste. He was a nice first-year college student, who often would give her a free drink or snack, as his family owned the business. The little favors were especially welcome as, other than friendly conversation and occasional little errands when the Crown got too busy, Motoki never asked for anything in return. She knew how some boys expected to be repaid for basic human decency with sex, but she was wholly uninterested in using her body that way.

 

He had been the one to offer her a part-time job. She had accepted it gladly, thrilled to make her own money. She mostly did sweeping and other janitorial things. She didn’t mind the work. The Crown, however, only needed her one or two days a week.

 

_Perhaps I should get a second job_ , she thought. She glared down at her failed test from this morning, the paper crinkled from when she had shoved it violently into her bag. She crumpled it into a ball and threw it over her shoulder. _It’s not like I need the time to do my homework!_

 

“Hey! Watch what you’re doing Odango Atama!”

 

Usagi spun around, having not known there had been someone behind her. The voice turned out to belong to an older boy around high school age. Usagi’s apology fizzled on her lips as she realized what he had called her. Her apologetic expression transformed into an expressionless façade. 

 

The boy stood there wearing a tuxedo of all things. He sneered at her over his designer sunglasses and leaned on a red sports car that was parked at the curb, holding the crumpled paper ball.  

 

So, he was not just a rich boy, but an obnoxiously rich boy. 

 

“Wow, only thirty points?” his arrogant tones announced, looking at the now uncrumpled paper in his hands. “Looks like you need to study more.”

 

Usagi’s jaw clenched and she flushed bright red. The boy no doubt was interpreting that as embarrassment, smirking at her. What she was actually feeling was, in fact, rage. It was one thing to take derogatory comments from her classmate, it was another entirely to take it from a man who was not only a perfect stranger whom she had never done anything to but an arrogant rich bastard at that!

 

Her big blue eyes glinted steely at him and his smirk quickly faded from his face when his gaze met hers. He coughed uncomfortably when all she did was glare stone-faced at him.

 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, scratching his cheek and looking away.

 

Usagi spun on her heel and walked away from him, continuing the rest of the way to the Crown. It took her a while to cool down from the encounter. She was always quick to anger; she had a lot to be angry about. But she was never one to act in anger, preferring to cool down and then act. “Revenge is best served cold” and all that. In this instance, however, there was nothing she could do, so once she cooled down, she did her best to forget about it. 

 

She found the distraction she needed when she reached the Crown. It seemed they had gotten a new game based on that vigilante girl that was all over the news. _Sailor V was her name, right?_ There was a small group of people at the game. She sat at the serving counter and while she couldn’t see the screen, she could still hear them exclaiming over the new game. The only thing she could see was the picture of Sailor V in her action fighting pose on the top of the game box.

 

How they had developed and distributed a video game of an unknown vigilante in the few months since she had started appearing in the news Usagi did not know. She wasn’t entirely convinced that the game and merchandise hadn’t been developed first and the “vigilante” girl in the news was actually a publicity stunt by the creators. Her skepticism didn’t prevent her from being a secret fan of the hero, though. 

 

Sailor V was someone Usagi thought she could admire if she were real. She was a lone girl, out in the city doing actual good. She was strong and fierce. She fought crime and helped people. Usagi, while very much a jaded loner, admired the masked girl.

 

“Hey, Usagi!” Motoki greeted with a smile from the other side of the counter, wiping his hands on a towel.

 

“Hey.” 

 

“I see you’ve noticed the new game we just got in.” Motoki rested his forearms on the counter, leaning over to join her in watching the group playing the game. “Been popular so far.”

 

“Mmm,” Usagi hummed distractedly in response. She turned to smile at the older boy in thanks when he slid a small dish of _takoyaki_ across to her.

 

“I made one too many for the last customer, so I saved it for you,” he said with a wink.

 

Usagi chuckled at the lie, her cheeks growing lightly pink at the kindness. “Thanks, Motoki-san.”

 

Usagi ate slowly, savoring the flavors, heightened by her hunger. She hadn’t had a chance to eat all day. Motoki and she stayed at the counter, Usagi content to simply people watch and keep Motoki company, while Motoki took care of customer orders and other aspects of his job.

 

Finally, the arcade closed for the evening and Usagi had to make her way home through the brightly lit streets of Juuban. The only thing in the sky that was visible was the full moon and, as she was usually want to do, she gazed up at the entrancing orb pensively as she walked.

 

Approaching the house, Usagi sighed as she spotted one of the kids sitting hunched on the stoop. Her steps slowed as she approached, taking in Shingo’s petulant scowl.

 

“They ain’t letting none of us in,” He informed her, not looking up from where he stared at the ground with his head resting on his knees. “Said they didn’t want any brats underfoot while they was playin’ poker.” He snorted and then growled under his breath, “More like they don’t want any of us as witnesses while they get high and lose all the money they get to take care of us.”

 

Usagi sighed and slumped down beside him. “Where’s the baby?”

 

“Yukihiro took him.”

 

Usagi nodded. Yukihiro was fifteen and tended to take on a big brother role with the younger kids in any house he found himself in. Usagi had never asked about his story, but she suspected that Yukihiro was one of those unfortunate kids who had a little sibling somewhere else in the system and had long been separated from them. She didn’t have to ask why Shingo was here instead of whatever hideout, Yukihiro had found. Shingo had always been aggressively hostile towards older males that tried to get close to him. She didn’t ask about Shingo’s story either.

 

She let her messenger bag drop to the ground and with another sigh, slumped down on the stoop behind the nine-year-old boy. He sniffed into his knees and wiped his tired face on the rough denim of his jeans. Together, they waited outside in silence, listening to the overly loud voices and merrymaking happening inside. 

 

 ()_()

=(-.-)=

o(bb)

 

By one that morning, the two of them had been able to slink their way inside as the Fujimas’ friends left one by one, and Usagi was finally able to find her bed. Her mind was settling deeper and deeper into sleep when she was abruptly yanked fully back to consciousness. 

 

She flinched hard at the unexpected feel of something heavy landing on her chest. Faster than her half-conscious mind could boot up, she had thrown off whatever had landed on her and rolled off of the bed. She landed with a thump, the landing knocking the air out of her and she gazed dazedly up at the ceiling.

 

A tiny head appeared in her field of vision, peeking over the side of the bed. “My goodness!” it said, “I don’t know whether to scold you for nearly throwing me back out the window or admire your fighting instinct and awareness!”

 

Usagi rose from the floor, shaky from the sudden burst of adrenalin, and peered over the side of the bed. There was a cat on her bed. Looking closer, she recognized the bald spot on its head. It was the cat from this morning! Then she stopped. _Wait, did the cat just_ talk _to me?!_

 

Usagi slumped on the floor, leaning disbelievingly against her bedside drawers, and simply stared wide-eyed at the _cat_ , the _talking cat_ that sat regally on her bed.

 

The cat sniffed at her befuddled expression, but otherwise ignored her reaction and straightened importantly. “Usagi, my name is Luna and I have been searching for you.”

 

Usagi blinked at her stupidly.

 

“I was beginning to think that I’d never find you, so I’m glad I was able to run into you this morning,” Then _the cat(!)_ , Luna seemed to start talking to herself, “No matter how humiliating it was being harassed by brats, and becoming impaired by a band-aid of all things…”

 

Usagi’s mind raced as she tried to reconcile what she was seeing into something she could process. This is a hallucination, maybe a dream. She had been asleep when this started. Was she still? She’s gone crazy? But, there hadn’t been any previous symptoms, had there? Crazy people don’t generally just become crazy, they slide slowly into it, right? Would she know if that had been happening to her?

 

The cat _(the cat!_ ) seemed to be reading her mind or something because she huffed and pawed closer with a stern expression ( _how can a cat have a stern expression?!_ ). “Usagi, this is not a dream!”

 

Usagi leaned back as Luna came closer, not yet sure if she should be afraid of this hallucination or not. Hallucinations couldn’t hurt you, true but what you did to yourself while delusional certainly could. She’d seen that for herself when one of her past foster homes had taken on a child a little more troubled than the foster parents could handle.

 

“Look here,” Luna said, “I have something for you.”

 

She held out a circular golden brooch with pearl details and four different colored jeweled beads. 

 

“This is not just a pretty bauble. You have been chosen, Usagi, to be a soldier, a defender of the innocents and protector of the moon princess! You are Sailor Moon!”

 

That finally broke through her wary bewilderment. Usagi couldn’t hold back the incredulous giggle as she reached out for the brooch that sat glimmering in front of her. She climbed back up onto the bed, at once amused and relieved. She was amused at how melodramatic Luna was. “Protect the princess”? it was a delightfully childish and fantastical idea. On the other hand, she was hugely relieved. This was a dream! The cat from this morning, being a soldier just like in the Sailor V arcade game. Even their names were similar! It was a dream made up of things her mind had cobbled together from images and events she had come across that day. Usagi had read in a magazine once that scientists figured that was what dreams were, the mind’s cataloging of the information gained from your waking hours. She had had plenty of those kinds of dreams, though never had they been so vivid!

 

Finally, she could speak. Now that she knew it was a dream and one that was turning out to be a pretty interesting one, she was happy to play along.

 

“Sailor Moon? A soldier?” she asked. “What does that mean?”

 

“It means that you are the leader of a group of sailor senshi, meant to come together to defeat the enemy and are the royal guardians of the hidden princess of the moon.”

 

“Um, ok,” Usagi said with an amused smile. Her attention was quickly diverted by a strange light. She gasped,” Luna, the brooch is doing something!”

 

In fact, the brooch was shining brightly, as if it contained a drop of moonlight. 

 

“Listen up, Usagi, get up! Touch the brooch and repeat after me. Moon Prism Power!”

 

Usagi got up and gazed down at the now pulsing brooch she cradled in her palms. 

 

“Moon Prism Power!”

 

The cool, bright light intensified before it seemed to wash over her. It felt like the most invigorating shower of her life. She could feel the cool light seep into her skin and penetrate her muscles and bones. Her body, still exhausted from her late night of sitting on the cold concrete stoop, was infused with strength and energy.

 

When the light faded, she looked down at her body and squealed. She was wearing different clothes! But that wasn’t even the most distressing part! She was wearing the shortest skirt she’d ever seen on anyone outside of a porn magazine! And why was she wearing heeled boots?! _I thought I was supposed to be a soldier!_

 

“Wha-what is all this?!” Usagi exclaimed, horrified.

 

“Calm down! it’s your Sailor Moon uniform,” Luna said exasperatedly.

 

“You expect me to go out in public like this?! What kind of soldier goes into a fight looking-,” Usagi’s complaints were cut off as the frankly ridiculous looking red mask that had also appeared on her face, began to beep. One of the lenses blinked on, obscuring her vision in one eye and showing her a map of the city. A small red light was blinking on a point in what looked like the shopping district. Text scrolled quickly across the map. 

 

“‘Power spike detected’, “Usagi read aloud, “‘Source: Dark Crystal. Type: Negaforce.’ What? What does that mean, Luna?”

 

“Usagi! This is what you have been awakened for! By becoming Sailor Moon you have become the protector of the world from the negative forces that wish to rise and take power. I hadn’t realized it would happen so quickly, but you must go and stop whoever is out there spreading the Negaforce.”

 

“What?!”

 

“I’ll try to explain better later, but you must hurry, Sailor Moon! People are in danger!”

 

Usagi gaped and hesitated. People were in danger. People were depending on her. Just like Sailor V. She turned and climbed out of the window. 

 

 ()_()

=(-.-)=

o(bb)

 

Usagi followed the map that remained lit up in her mask, running through the sleeping streets of the city. She marveled at the ease with which she moved. She had been sprinting as hard and fast as she’s ever been able to the whole way and she barely felt out of breath or any burn in her muscles

 

Faster than she thought possible, she reached the place the beeping light had been indicating. She found herself in front of a jewelry store. Off to the side, she heard Luna bounding after her. The cat huffed and puffed, evidently not getting super running powers with her magical talking cat abilities. The map still lit up her vision and she tapped at the mask haphazardly, trying to get it to go away again. When it wouldn’t she tisked, frustrated, and ripped it off her face. Before she could ask the panting Luna what she was supposed to do with it, a scream rang out from inside. She threw the mask over her shoulder and barreled inside.

 

She immediately recognized that as being a stupid thing to do as the _thing_ inside immediately turned its attention from the familiar girl cowering before it to Usagi. The thing was the stuff of Usagi’s nightmares. It looked like it had tried to disguise its self as a woman, but had no real idea of what a human woman looked like. Grey skinned and wild-haired, its face was stretched and exaggerated and its yellow eyes glinted malevolently at her. 

 

“Who the hell are you?” it garbled, turning menacingly.

 

Usagi straightened. Whether facing off against drunk old men, cruel fellow students or supernatural nightmare monsters, Usagi had long been taught the lesson of never showing your fear and vulnerability. Instinctively the words flowed out of her.

 

“I am the guardian of the innocent, the soldier of justice! I am Sailor Moon!”

 

The monster sneered and shot its outstretched hand over its head. “I’m a little busy here, so why don’t I bring you some friends to play with while I finish! Arise!”

 

Usagi stilled, confused about what it was talking about and listening for whatever it had just done with its hand. The monster turned back to the girl (Naru? from school?) and Usagi made to step between the two figures when she heard a shuffling noise. The shuffling noise was closer and the shuffling began to sound like footsteps. More and more footsteps seemed to be getting ever closer until a small crowd of people had gathered at the entrance to the store.

 

“Kill her!” the monster ordered.

 

Usagi only had enough time to notice that the people shuffled as if sleepwalking, their arms swinging limply and their eyes glowing the same bright purple as the pieces of jewelry they each wore. At the monster’s words, the people’s bodies jerked into action. They sprang at her moving as if being controlled by strings. 

 

She jumped out of the way. There were so many of them grabbing at her! She grabbed a large mirror from the counter and smashed it over the head of a man wearing a diamond earing lit with pulsing magic in one ear who had cornered her against the cash register. A glass counter shattered under the weight of a rather heavy-set woman who had attempted to claw her eyes out with long red painted nails, the woman necklaced with a string of sinisterly glowing pearls. One woman had apparently been in the middle of getting a drink when she had been summoned, for she had brought a bottle of wine with her. Usagi dodged as the woman swung and broke the bottle on the store counter, barely missing Usagi’s head. Usagi ran from the reaching hands and darting figures, slamming her hip into a glass counter and throwing jewelry displays to the ground behind her to trip up her attackers.

 

She dove into the dark warehouse-like back room and crouched behind a shelving unit, her heart racing and her hands shaking with adrenaline and fear. The pain in her hip, scratched face and her scraped knees filled her with dread as Luna jumped down beside her.

 

“What the hell! This isn’t just a dream!” She said with whispered panic.

 

“What are you going on about, Usagi?!” Luna admonished, “You need to be out there fighting back and defeating the monster!”

 

“What gave you the impression I know how to fight?!!” Usagi nearly shrieked, an action she regretted immediately as the shuffling people found her and leaped toward her. In the lead was the girl, Naru. The monster had clearly gotten the upper hand with her and turned her into one of the shuffling masses. She stared blankly, her eyes lit with a purple light that pulsed in time with a diamond-studded circlet that sat atop her head. 

 

The monster gave a roaring laugh from behind the group who was steadily trying to cram all at once into the small space Usagi had hidden in. “My you are an energetic one! Come here girl I have some earrings that would look lovely on you! You would be a marvelous addition to the growing power of the Dark!”

 

Usagi cringed back from the reaching hands. She flinched as something shot into her field of vision, thinking one of them had thrown something at her. Naru, whose hands had been ever reaching, had been abruptly felled. She landed in a heap on the floor, her hand stabbed through and pinned to the floor by strange looking kunai. 

 

“Now Sailor Moon! Use your tiara! Shout ‘Moon Tiara Boomerang’” Luna shouted.

 

Usagi yanked the tiara from her forehead pulling her hair painfully from their messy buns in her panic.

 

“Moon Tiara Boomerang!”

 

The tiara flew with bright piercing silver light and cut right through the monster’s neck. The monster’s head fell, disintegrating to dust before it had to chance to bounce to the floor. Its body jerked at the abrupt departure of the head before it too crumbled to the floor. The people shuffling forward and tripping over the fallen Naru fell to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

 

“Nice job, Sailor Moon,” called a voice from the shadows. A masked figure clad in a black tuxedo and top hat stepped into the light of the moon.

 

Usagi was not in the mood for more mysteries. She was tired and aching all over. She was also furious. She was furious at Luna for being little to no use during the fight, and she was furious at herself for being an idiot and expecting her to be. True, Luna had granted her superpowers and could talk, but she was still… a cat. 

 

“Who the fuck are you?” she growled, one hundred percent done with all of this and glaring fiercely up at him.

 

“Erm,” He started, clearly struck dumb by the thunderous vibes she was sending his way. “I am Tuxedo Mask. I guess I’ll be seeing you around, Sailor Moon.” 

 

“Wait just a damned minute!” she ordered murderously “Where you just standing there watching the whole time while I was fighting that thing?!” 

 

Tuxedo Mask gave a halfhearted dip of his hat and jumped out the window, leaving Usagi to growl and clenched her fists.

 

 ()_()

=(-.-)=

o(bb)

 

The next day during lunch, Usagi curled up behind a bush in the school courtyard. She was exhausted, her mind slow with the lack of sleep and her body sore with scratches and bruises, but she knew staying home from school was out of the question. Mrs. Fujima refused to allow kids to stay home sick from school unless they were close to death, for fear of calling the attention of child services to them. 

 

Usagi’s hip throbbed and she squirmed on the grass to find a comfortable position. She rested, hidden behind some bushes, with her head pillowed on her school bag. No one had said anything about how she had shown up to school with scratches across her cheek, and as far as she could tell, no one had noticed. It hadn’t surprised her and she was honestly relieved. Having to come up with a reason why she was a little beat up today would make everything way too real. Her mind was hiding behind a very thin, very sheer curtain of denial about her “dream” last night and she wasn’t ready for it to be ripped away from her. 

 

Luna lounged in a sun spot next to her, purring her contentment and warmth.

 

Despite this state of denial, she twisted the object in her hands. Before she had left the scene, Usagi had grabbed the sharp projectile weapon that had been embedded in Naru’s hand. She dared not leave the weapon in her room at the house and so inspected it while she had some free private time. In the light of day, she admired the weapon’s beauty.

 

When she had been younger and had been allowed to go with her class on a field trip to the National Museum of Japanese History, she had seen a display on the history of weapons. She had seen a bunch of different kunai on display, something she distinctly remembered because they were the weapon of choice in the most popular manga at the time and all of the other kids had wanted to see them.

 

The one she held in her hands was not like those. It was deadly-sharp with a one long triangular blade and a small finger guard that looked like stylized leaves. The handle was wrapped in black leather and the pommel was an intricately wrought rose. It was a beautiful weapon, she couldn’t believe that tuxedo moron would just leave it behind.

 

“Oh my god, Naru! Are you ok?” cried a voice from beyond the bushes.

 

“I can’t believe it!”

 

“I know! Anyway, there I was, being attacked by this vicious thief, when suddenly this sailor-suited woman appeared to save me!”

 

Usagi froze as the voices pierced through her drifting thoughts. She flipped over onto her hands and knees, moved a branch aside and peered through the bush into the courtyard. A group of students surrounded the red-headed girl from last night. Naru cradled her heavily bandaged hand to her chest, her cheeks flushed pink from all the attention.

 

“A sailor suit? Why was she dressed as a sailor?”

 

“Naru, are you sure you weren’t just dreaming?”

 

“What?! no!” Naru flushed deeper and scowled at the girl who had asked the last question.

 

Usagi quietly slumped back to the ground staring blankly at the sky. Luna opened one sardonic eye and flicked her tail in a way that could only be interpreted as “I told you so.”

 

So.

 

There was no more denying it. I hadn’t been a dream at all. It had really happened.

 


End file.
